“It won’t happen to you, because you’re too ugly,” heard the demonstrator on Dolle Mina protest against street intimidation

Saturday evening, heart of Maastricht. About two hundred protesters gather with their bikes in front of the town hall. They participate in a bike ride against sexual violence and street intimidation, under the name ‘The night is also our’. There are signs with ‘femicide = also your problem’ and ‘hey man say something about it’. Romy Frijters, one of the organizers, takes the floor: “Talk to each other for female -unfriendly behavior.”

Calculated there and then a group of ‘young boys’ starts to call, Frijters says two days later. “Nonsense!” It sounds. Some women try to send the boys away, according to Frijters they don’t listen to that. Only when male protesters address the boys, do they leave. Fixed drunk, Frijters thinks at that time, men on their way to an evening out. But the incident in Maastricht does not stand on its own.

In at least eleven of the more than twenty ‘the night, our demonstrations that were spread throughout the country by action group Dolle Mina on Saturday evening is also organized, afterwards reports made of disruption, intimidation or sexual violence. That says Sia Hermanides, who is nationally involved in the Dolle MINA actions. This concerns incidents in Amersfoort, Houten, Utrecht, Maastricht, Zwolle, Groningen, Nijmegen, Leeuwarden and Eindhoven, among others.

“In our mailbox, messages now come in about that” cancer whores “have been called whether that has been kicked against a woman’s bike,” says Hermanides. “We are in shock, and now we see if we can make a joint declaration.”

Spit

NRC spoke women who were in actions in Utrecht, Amersfoort, Groningen and Maastricht. The cycling and walking tours were consciously organized in city centers and suburbs where women sometimes feel unsafe. Along the way, the organizers say of the various promotions, participants shouted out, spit, spit on their buttocks or just kissed on their mouths.

After the shouting in front of the town hall in Maastricht, there is also things there, says Frijters. The crowd pulls through the center with bells and bells, from balconies they are welcomed. But there is also intimidation. “Boys came running behind us and tried to jump on the bike on the back. From the road we were scolded for ‘whores’ and ‘sluts’,” says Frijters.

Zoom in

In retrospect, the Limburg department of Dolle Mina only hears how many stories of these kinds of stories there were among Maastricht participants, says co -organizer Saskia, who does not want to be in the newspaper with her last name. Someone who is pushed by a girl who calls ‘cancer feminists’, for example. With another, a man jumps behind, who stays on until a male participant helps her push him off her luggage rack. Another woman is beaten on her buttocks and participating men are called ‘gay’.

The Limburg department has called on participants to report to the Municipal Fixed Point for Street Intimidation. According to a municipal spokesperson, three people have already done that. Whether someone reported a report could not say on Tuesday, but the organization suspects so.

‘Whores’

“What an evening,” writes the organization of the bicycle procession in Amersfoort on Monday in an Instagram message. “Thanks to everyone who was there.” But, the promotion has also made clear why it is needed: participants are scolded, there was thrown with cans.

GroenLinks-PvdA MP Marleen Haage was also there on Saturday-first in Amersfoort, then in Utrecht. In Amersfoort she saw it going wrong at the beginning. “The announcement of the protest was disturbed by a drunken guest who was pushed forward by his friends, who stood through it.” Later she heard scolds. Especially in Utrecht she found it striking: “Near the square near the Corps, the Janskerkhof, we were scolded for ‘whores’.”

In Groningen, Dolle Mina chose to start the parade earlier, says organizer Ilse Nevenzel, and there have been incidents. Nasty comments – ‘It will not happen to you, because you are too ugly’ – but also assault. Apart from the red -light neighborhood, a group of men were watching the procession, one of them had run into the procession. “A young woman kissed her mouth unwanted by him.” “She has responded adequately, and reports. We support her in it and it is promising: many people have seen it happen.”

The police units of the North and Central Netherlands have not yet received any reports about the events of Saturday evening, they say to NRC. The Limburg police were not available for comment on Tuesday.

Fight

“It only shows how necessary this promotion is,” says Limburg organizer Romy Frijters. “You would expect everyone to support violence on women, but there are still big steps to be taken.” In the incidents, the Groningen Ilse Nevenzel sees how “all boys and men still think you don’t have to take women so seriously.”

Participants in Maastricht are visited, says Frijters. “I hope it doesn’t scare them up next time.” Nevenzel does not think so. “Something like that also fuels a fighting spirit with many.”

The protest against violence against women is growing, and according to Neven himself, that is opposed to opposition. “There are people who find that superfluous and exaggerated.”

To share





Mail the editors